Confused Computer Control

I am back at Cloudy Nights after a total knee replacement and then a blood clot, which put me back into the hospital for another week and now two weeks of physical therapy behind me.

While I am continuing my recovery I am trying to set up my Nexstar 8i SE to be controlled by my computer. This is where I hit a brick wall. I ordered a TRENDnet USB to Serial Converter (TU-S9) as recommend by Celestron.

I installed the driver from the CD that came with the unit. When I connect it, the Device Manager has the yellow exclamation point. I then went the Prolific website and download the latest driver. I get the same results. I have removed and reinstalled drivers until I got blue in the face and a few other words. I just can’t get the computer to talk to the telescope through the USB to RS232 via telephone cord to the telescope handset.

Has anybody else encountered this problem? Help if you can provide it.

It would help if we knew what operating system you are running, as well as the driver version and the name of the driver installer executable.

FWIW, I've seen a similar issue with Prolific 2303 chips and Windows 7. I talked to some one at Prolific and I was informed that their chips had been counterfeited, and that devices using the bogus chips would not work with Win7.

trash any current usb serial that contain profilic theyre good, by tripp-lite keyspan 19HS and free your problems. those prolific are so bad that they dont even work on win 8 without buying another from them, thats a scam. Keyspan do update for all versions, you wont regret!

Sorry about leaving out the finer details. I am still on pain drugs. The operating system is Windows 7.

I used both the TRENDnet installation program and the Prolific installation program to install PL-2303, dated 2/05/2013, version 3.4.48.272.

After installation the driver indicated in Device Manager is “SER2pl64.sys”, which is found in System32\driver folder. I believe Windows auto installs this file.

I have attached a Desk Top print of the other 7 drivers found in SYS32\DriverStore\FileRepository folder, that have been installed while trying to get the USB to RS232 adaptor to work. I hope you can read the attachment. I tried deleting them but the computer says I am unauthorized to make changes in the Sys32 folders. I don’t understand because I am the keeper of my lap top and I thought I had all privileges covered.

I wanted to remove all the drivers in the FileRepository related to SER2PL files and see what Windows 7 would provide.

Windows has a habit of changing com port numbers on you, use the Windows Device Manager to look at the comports in use to check the port number, i.e. COM1, COM5, COM9 etc... You may find the com port you think it is assigned is now one number higher or lower...

trash any current usb serial that contain profilic theyre good, by tripp-lite keyspan 19HS and free your problems. those prolific are so bad that they dont even work on win 8 without buying another from them, thats a scam. Keyspan do update for all versions, you wont regret!

Sorry to bust your bubble, but the Prolific adapters work just fine. Here is a link to their drivers: Prolific USB Drivers

If your device still does not work, you do not have a genuine Prolific chip. I ran into this problem with my adapter and Windows 7. It ran fine under XP and Vista, but not Win7. I talked to a tech at Prolific, and it turns out evilBay was flooded with devices that used a counterfeit chip. Those devices will not work under Win7 or Win8.

Windows has a habit of changing com port numbers on you, use the Windows Device Manager to look at the comports in use to check the port number, i.e. COM1, COM5, COM9 etc... You may find the com port you think it is assigned is now one number higher or lower...

Here's a tip for ya:

Windows Vista and Win7 (and I presume Win8) assign port numbers based on the USB port you have the device connected to. Each port gets 4 separate numbers.

To keep things straight, decide which port you will ALWAYS use for each device.
Plug that device into the desired USB port.
Open Device Manager and open Ports.
Right click on the port you want to change and click Properties.
Click Port Settings.
Click Advanced.
Click the Com Port Number drop down list.
Scroll through the list and click on the "new" Com Port Number.

For example, if your "new" device came up as Com19 and you want to use it on Com3, Scroll up to find Com3 and click it.

Click OK. If you get a "Port in use" error, just click OK. Click Apply, and then click OK. Your new port will always be on Com3 as long as you plug it into the same USB port on your laptop/PC.

I did this for my USB to Serial adapter and my BU-353 GPS. I use the GPS to send time, date and LAT/LONG to my LXD75 with an application called GPS2Astar, and keeping the USB/Com Ports "fixed" makes things much easier.

Thanks for all the suggestions and information provided. I did remove all drivers related to the USB to Serial adapter out of System32\Drivers folder. I also removed the 7 files related to the adapter from System32\FileRepository folder. These were installed by several installation programs that were used trying to find the appropriate driver(s).

I plugged the adaptor into another Windows 7 computer and bingo, the computer accepted the adaptor. I went into Device Manager and wrote down the 2 drivers being used. I transferred those 2 drivers plus the related file from the System32\FileRepository and placed them in the appropriate folders on my computer. When I plugged the adapter into my computer again, bingo the adapter was accepted. I believe these are Microsoft drivers.

The only thing left for me to do is find a good astronomy program and learn how to control the telescope via the computer.

I have a NexStar 8i SE. I am just learning how to use the telescope and cannot wait to find out just what I can see. Next comes what the lens can do and how to use them. No photography is in the near future. I just want to observe and look at the wonders in the night sky.